Never Listen To People Who Disagree With You

Sometimes a misguided attempt to right a wrong backfires, exacerbating the original wrong. Throwing water on a grease fire is one example. Tying a tourniquet so tight that it cuts off the blood supply to a limb is another example. Hiding from lightening under a tree – bad idea! You probably have a list of your own examples that fit the bill. The root causes of such “mistakes” nearly always boil down to lack of knowledge or experience or the rush of acting without thinking first. In some cases, a bystander warns “don’t throw water on that fire,” but it is too late. The do-gooder doesn’t hear in time or, in more egregious cases, stubbornly decides to ignore the advice. The fire spreads.

So it comes as no surprise that the ten former 9-11 Commissioners (now the 9-11 Public Disclosure Project), including five Republicans, warned this past Monday that Iraq is becoming the world’s prime terrorist training ground. Last week’s triple suicide-bombing in Amman, Jordan demonstrates the ability of terrorists in Iraq to export their deadly goods. It is believed that those terrorists had prepared in Iraq.

Iraq borders six countries: Jordan, Turkey, Iran, Syria, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Its border of 1,793 miles roughly approximates the size of the 1,900-mile border between the U.S. and Mexico, but it is much more difficult to patrol. Conceivably, it is just a matter of time before terrorists from Iraq spread into the rest of the Middle East, Europe, and even the United States. So spreads an imprudently fought fire.

Even if you don’t accept that the invasion of Iraq was akin to throwing water on a grease fire (when a well placed lid would have been preferable), there is no reason now to fan the flames further. But that is just what the Bush administration has repeatedly done and has done again by its rejection of the Senate’s proposed amendment to a military appropriations bill (passed 90-9), which states: “No individual in the custody or under the physical control of the United States Government, regardless of nationality or physical location, shall be subject to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment” – basically outlawing torture. The same administration that used legal briefs to defend its use of torture is now seeking a special torture exemption for the CIA, the same guys who supposedly “directed” the interrogations at the Abu Ghurayb Prison.

The Commissioners noted that the increasing terrorism threat from Iraq is, to some extent, connected to the “highly publicized reports of brutalization, humiliation and desecration” by the United States. The Senate’s amendment is a first step in ending these winds that only help fan the flames of Islamic fundamentalism.

Sadly, this President does not learn from his mistakes, his biggest being his inability to listen to anyone outside his insular circle of adviser-cronies. He might have gone down as a great leader had he listened to Colon Powell after 9/11, focused on Afghanistan where we knew terrorists trained, and used the goodwill we so briefly engendered from other nations, including Arab nations, to unite the world in a global fight against terrorism. But he did not, and it is unlikely he will listen to the Commissioners.

No one likes to see a President fail. But with Scooter Libby indicted, Karl Rove and Bill Frist under investigation, and Democrats defeating Republican candidates in Virginia and New Jersey, among other things, there is some satisfaction when the great stubborn do-it-my-wayer, ignoring advice not to throw water on a fire, gets a little burned himself. Such schadenfraude, however, only numbs the pain, but does not heal the disease. The disease is that this President does not listen, and as a result, the flames he fans kill innocent Iraqis by the dozens each day, kill and maim our own brave men and women working to bring peace to the Iraq, and may ultimately hit our own shores in the form of exported terrorism.

Presumably, the administration believes torture is a useful means of obtaining reliable information about possible terrorist attacks. The experts say otherwise, noting that victims of torture do talk, but they give information that is less reliable than that obtainable by other means.

But what are the chances that the Bush administration will listen to experts?

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The Report on the Status of 9/11 Commission Recommendations (Part III) issued on November 14, 2005 is available at http://www.9-11pdp.org/press/2005-11-14_report.pdf.